Dr Sara Ronca graduated in Chemistry from the University ‘Federico II’, Naples (Italy) in 2000 and she got her PhD in Chemical Sciences from the same university in 2003. After several post-doc across Italy, Netherlands and California, she joined Loughborough University in 2008 as Research Associate and became Lecturer in 2011 and Senior Lecturer in 2014. Her scientific interests lie in the field of polymer chemistry, with a particular focus on polyolefins. She has studied several aspects of the polymerisation process, with the aim to follow a polymer creation in every step of its lifetime: from ‘conception’ (the choice of the catalyst/the monomer) to ‘birth’ (the choice of reaction conditions), ‘development’ (the material characterisation - in term of both chain microstructure and bulk properties) and ‘final purpose’ (the polymer processing and application).

Metal-catalyzed polymerizations Polymers for high-added value applications Relationships between catalyst structure and polymer properties Combinatorial chemistry

Romano, D.; Andablo-Reyes, E.A.; Ronca, S.; Rastogi, S. ‘Effect of a cocatalyst modifier in the synthesis of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene having reduced number of entanglements’ J. Pol. Sci. A: Pol. Chem., 2013, 51 (7), 1630-1635. Ronca, S.; Forte, G.; Ailianou, A.; Kornfield, J.A.; Rastogi, S. ‘Direct route to colloidal UHMWPE by including LLDPE in solution during homogeneous polymerization of ethylene’ ACS Macro Lett., 2012, 1, 1116-1120. Ronca, S.; Forte, G.; Tjaden, H.; Yao, Y.; Rastogi S. ‘Tailoring molecular structure via nanoparticles for solvent-free processing of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene composites’ Polymer 2012, 53, 2897-2907. Rastogi, S.; Yao, Y.; Ronca, S.; Bos, J.; van der Eem J. ‘Unprecedented High-Modulus High-Strength Tapes and Films of Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Polyethylene via Solvent-Free Route’ Macromolecules, 2011, 44, 5558–5568. Busico, V.; Cipullo, R.; Pellecchia, R.; Ronca, S.; Roviello, G.; Talarico, G. ‘Design of stereoselective Ziegler-Natta propene polymerization catalysts’ Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2006, 103, 15321-15326. Busico, V.; Cipullo, R.; Romanelli, V.; Ronca, S.; Togrou, M. ‘On the Reactivity of Secondary Metal-Alkyls in Catalytic Propene Polymerization: How Dormant Are “Dormant Chains?” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 1608-1609.